There Are Angels

Friday, August 27, 2010

The guy finally finished the tree. It took 14.5 hours to complete the job. That didn't include cutting the thing up, my husband is doing that. That tree was a monster. I'm sure the man is happy he's done with it.

I've also began embroidery with my new Bernina 830. I'm making Christmas stockings for the new kids & assistants in my granddaughter's special education class. I've made 4 of 6 names for the stockings. Now, I just have to make the stockings themselves. I lost the original pattern & had to buy one. I won't lose it- I hope. Anyway, since I have too many scraps, I'm considering doing this batch as crazy patch & I'll use many of the decorative stitches on the new 830. I'm taking classes to learn how to properly use it & they're fun. I'm learning a lot. The 830, in function, is similar to my 165, but it does things in different ways. I'll learn it soon enough.

I'm also happy its Friday. This past week has been a bear. I'm ready for a quiet, clam weekend. Now, let's see if that actually happens. . .

Yesterday we had this huge tree taken down from behind my house. It was rotten in the middle & if the wind got up or lightning struck it, it would fall on the house. It took 8 1/2 hours , 5 chain saws, and 6 men to bring it down. The poor guy who took the job lost $$, but vowed to keep at it until the tree came down. We couldn't park in the driveway in case the tree fell in that direction so we parked on the narrow street, the neighbors were all watching & several of them were parked on the street as well. At one point the street was blocked for safety reasons if the tree fell & there was a possibility that when it fell it would take out a light pole & fire hydrant with it. That didn't happen, fortunately. By 8 pm last night, all went well & the tree finally came down. We counted rings inside the trunk & determined that the tree was over 200 years old. I hated to lose the only shade in the back yard, but the tree was just too dangerous to leave there. With that fiasco over, my husband joked "what can we do to top that this weekend?" I replied "nothing, I need a quiet weekend." You understand that this week was one of those where everything went wrong? Here's hoping that the weekend & week ahead are quiet & uneventful. I need the rest.

Friday, August 20, 2010

I finally got to buy a Bernina 830 sewing/embroidery machine. I'd been wanting one for several months. After the last payment was made (to me) on a farm I sold, I splurged & bought one. Yesterday (Thursday) I took the first class on it & found it to be remarkably similar to my old 165 machine. My Dear Hubby is building a cabinet/table for it this weekend, at least he promised he would. The 830 with embroidery module attached is too big to fit on the drafting table I planned to put it on. The table is also too tall for it. I even have some embroidery work lined up at my bank. I opened the embroidery unit to find the foot for it was missing. I called the quilt shop where I got it & they said they'd get me one quickly. They also threw in the mega hoop and the jumbo hoop, plus 27 hours of classes and free lifetime refresher classes. That's one heck of a deal. The hoops and the classes alone are worth about $1200 or so. Can't beat it. Now I have 2 fantastic machines to use, the 830 jumbo hoop will allow to embroider large designs like the entire back of a jacket or shirt. It may take several hours to do, but it is possible. The 830 is probably the last machine I'll ever buy, or need , for that matter. I may need to upgrade my embroidery software to go along with the new machine. I'll try it with version 5 first. Now I feel that I have all the equipment I'll ever need to be truly creative. Stay tuned to see what I create next.

Monday, August 16, 2010

This is the first (still in progress) or a series I call "Kitchen Witches". Each little quilt will depict a "Kitchen Witch" in different aspects of the kitchen, baking, vegies, meat, poultry, cleaning, general cooking, etc. The approximate size will be 18 x 24 inches & will contain journaling and other forms of embellishments. Some may even contain airbrushing. The inspiration for this series is Susan Shie's "Kitchen Tarot" series. Watch along as these 12 Kitchen Witches "come to life" in quilt form. I'm not sure how long the whole series will take, but the journey will be fun . . .